Forgotten Souls
by Mochi1
Summary: ~Ok Well, this one isn't done neither but what the hell, I'll put it up anyway!This is about my favorate person in final fantasy 7, Vincent Valentine. I don't know where this is going or anythng..... but..... {trails off in a drunken slur of gibberish}


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Forgotten Souls

e sighed; breathing in the moldy dust of his coffin that he had grown so accustomed to. He stared at the splintering ceiling of the wooden chamber wondering when he would be set free. He had long lost count of how long he's been locked up in his coffin and thinking over his life would be his ritual throughout the years he spent in this vertical position, with no food, no water. He was locked in the basement of an old condemned mansion, which the townspeople called the Shindra mansion. He would think, in the eternal silence of the house, how he ended up here, and about Lucrecia. "Damn its cold..." he would usually think and bring his arms around his bare chest to keep warm, but this day he was filled with despair and thought, "if today is my day to die than I shall and with pleasure." Then he thought of the man who caused these disruptive thoughts inside of him, Dr. HoJo, he locked him inside of this coffin and stole Lucrecia from him. Suddenly his thought was broken by a noise at the basement door. His eyes opened wide and he became both scarred and excited at the same time. Thoughts ran through his head, as fast as lighting striking the earth. Is it Dr.HoJo, Lucrecia? He wanted to call out, he wanted to scream, but all the years of being locked in the coffin, inhaling the dust, damaged his vocal cords, hopefully, he though, when I breath in some fresh air my voice will began to heal. He banged at the coffin lid with all his strength, which wasn't a lot for the lack of energy he had. Then he heard footsteps through the room. Then people's voices, he strained his ears to hear what they were saying but the coffin was too thick and the voices too soft. Then an echoing boom filled the room. It came from the coffin beside his, he decided, please open mine! Suddenly scraping, and prying noises filtered through the lid of his coffin, which were sounds that he had dreamed of hearing for a long, long time. Then a small dingy light entered the coffin, then, when the whole lid was off, light comepleatly filled his coffin, temporarily blinding him. He shut his eyes, for seeing light for the first time in more than five years can hurt.

"What is it?" the soft voice of a female asked.

"I'm not sure… hello?" a male answered the girl, as the man in the coffin slowly opened his eye, adjusting to the new light. There were three people standing there, a girl with light brown hair and glowing green eyes, a young boy, who seemed the age of 20, or 21, with spiky dirty blonde hair, and then there was another girl, she was taller than the first with long black hair and wild brown eyes. The boy spoke up again, and said, as if he wasn't talking to a stranger,"do you know anything about Sephiroth?" He stared at the boy, and shook his head, in shock that he was not searching for him, but for one named Sephiroth. "Are you sure?" The boy asked. He nodded. "Well thanks anyway." The man in the coffin was appalled… how dare they wake me from my sleep of time and just walk away like that! He sat up and watched the three wonder out of the basement and up the stairs to the main floor. He just sat there, in his coffin for a few minutes, collecting himself. He has been dreaming of this moment every day that he had been locked up in the coffin by HoJo, and now that the moment had come, he didn't know what to do with it. He slowly stood and stepped out of his wooden prison. He looked around the basement. It hasn't changed at all through out all these years. It was still dusty, and cobwebs all over the roof and the stench of death hung in the air. He started to walk towards the door. He almost lost balance only once. As he got to the spiral staircase he remembered the frantic chase he had endured all those years ago. He would do anything to claim revenge. He climbed the ancient staircase that seemed alive under his boots. As he reached the top his thoughts remained on the young boys question. "Do you know anything about Sephiroth?" echoed in his brain. "Sephiroth, Sephiroth, Sephiroth." Then he remembered, HoJo saying something about Jenova and Sephiroth. He stood in the room that the staircase led up to, he combed his hand through his back length black hair. All these memories came flooding back to him, memories from the past, the past that seemed another life since he was locked up in the coffin. "Jenova, Mako, experiment, Lucrecia, Sephiroth..." With all these memories came ones of hatred, ones of HoJo. He shook away these thoughts, more important things are afoot, he thought. There is no time to stand around thinking of what cannot be changed. He thought this often; he got these thoughts almost every waking day. He walked out of the room, into a hallway, and then into a huge room, with a staircase leading into the main room. He walked right past the staircase into another room and found the safe he used when the mansion was still an inn. He searched the pockets of his tight, torn, black leather pants until he found a rusty skeleton key. He slid the key into the lock and turned it, the safe opened with ease. Inside he found his old possessions, the possessions of his past life, locked away, locked away from time and change. They were wrapped up in a soft, lavender cloth. He took out his things and, leaving the key in the lock, turned and walked back into the main hall. It was huge, the domed ceiling hovering over him about 200 feet. The railing of the staircase was covered in a thick layer of dust and the stairs creaked under his weight as he hurriedly stepped down them. When he got to the bottom of the staircase he rushed to the door, he wanted to get out of there; he knows the place to be as prison to him, as a place of torture. He opened the heavy, wooden door and stepped outside. He grasped his neck as he inhaled his first breath of fresh air in all those years, and then he let out a horse cough. He squinted his eyes and walked down the dirty, rocky path to the giant dark, iron gates that kept the weeds in the grass from escaping into the town. When he reached the gates he yanked them open and walked out, leaving the gate open. He then looked around.There was two roads he could go down. To his left there was the mountain pass, which lead up to Mount Nibel and the other, which was directly in front of him, lead to the town.

"Why would I want to go and get lost in those wrenched mountains?" he thought to himself looking left and griping his things as he started to walk towards the town. It's was a smaller town than he'd remembered, but the well was still there. No one walked the streets, only a whining dog was in sight. He walked into the inn, and took out the 100 gil he had kept in his pocket all those years. He looked up at the clerk; middle-aged woman with short, icy blue hair was absorbed in a magazine and probably didn't notice him walk in. He nosily dropped the 100 gil on the counter and the clerk, with out looking up even then, grasped the gil and tossed him any room key. He hurriedly climbed up the stairs and opened the door to the room. It's was a messy room, but it was better than his past accommodations. He put his stuff down on the bed and walked into the bathroom to examine how he has changed over the years. He looked at the floor as he stepped completely in, his glare then fixed in the sink and slowly he moved his crimson eyes to the piece of reflective glass, which hung on the wall above the sink. He examined his face with awe. He hadn't changed a bit! His skin was still soft with youth, his scarlet eyes still lively, and his dark chocolate hair was still in place. He then lifted his arm and combed through his hair. He examined his hair closer and found old cobwebs all mangled into it. He then rubbed his hand over his torn leather pants to receive a handful of dust. "I must take a shower now." He thought as he slowly unbuttoned his pants with one hand as his other was useless for it would get caught in the seam line, because another reason he despised Dr.HoJo is that he replaced his left arm with a golden claw, just another one of the bastards twisted experiments. The pants dropped down into a pile around his feet as he stepped out of it and untied his bootlaces and slowly kicked them off one by one. He then grasped the shower knob with his right hand and turned on the shower. He slowly crept behind the light green curtain surrounding the shower, adjusting to the warm water that fell upon his body. He scrubbed the water through his hair, making sure to rinse out all of the spider webs and the dust. Then he thought, "Its good that the clerk didn't look up and see me, she would have thought I was back from the dead." Then he thought about the ones who had woken him. "I wonder who they were… maybe I would be help to them, after all I know something about Sephiroth… That monster HoJo was always talking about a new experiment, a superhuman… and when I tried to stop him, he cut off my arm and locked me in that horrible coffin. I'll find them tomorrow and see if I can join them" He then turned off the water and climbed out of the shower, dripping water all over the floor. His dark bangs hung in his eyes, dripping water into his face like stalactites hanging on a cave ceiling. He grasped a towel and quickly dried off his claw, so it wouldn't rust, and then rapped it around his hair. He then took another towel and dried off his pale body. He then walked naked into the room with the bed and got his stuff and delicately unwrapped the snow-purple fabric, relieving a new pair of soft, leather jeans, a black uniform shirt, a blood red cape, which attached around his neck like a turtle neck sweater, a red bandana, a glove, a pair of silky red boxers and a Quicksilver gun. He slipped on the silky boxers and his new tight leather pants. Then he slipped on his shirt and buttoned it up to the top. He picked up the cape and thrust it around his shoulders and latched the first two buttons, leaving the other two to hang. He then slipped on the glove and picked up the bandana and wrapped it around his head and under his hair twice, letting a few hairs slip out and hang in his face. Then he stood and walked into the bathroom, he kicked his old pair of pants under the sink and slipped his boots back on. He would go back into the town and get something to drink; maybe he would be able to talk better then. He suddenly stopped at the door and looked at his claw. He wondered what people would think if they saw it. He closed his eyes and shrugged. "I am Vincent Valentine…" he thought. "I don't care what people think." He picked up the key off the table and slipped it into his pocket. He closed, and locked the door and walked down the stairs.

"Checking out sir?" asked the blue haired lady at the front desk, asked him as he headed for the door. He shook his head no. "Ok, just checking." He stepped out into the town again as the sun was just setting and the stars were coming out. He walked just to the building next to the inn and opened the stained glass door.

"Hello!" a fat, cheery man behind the bar said. Vincent uneasily waved with his right hand. "Can I get you a drink?" the man asked. Vincent nodded yes. The man turned around and fiddled around with all sorts of bottles and glasses until he finally turned around and slid Vincent the oozing glass. He stared blankly at the glass until the bartenders' heavy stare forced him to bring the glass to his lips. He sipped the golden liquid and sat the glass on the table taking a deep breath and digging into his pocket. He took out two gil and slid them over to the man. He greedily grasped them and watched as Vincent took another gulp.

"Ha! Good stuff huh? All the way from Cosmo Canyon!" He said as another customer walked in and he completely forgot about Vincent.

As Vincent finished the glass he glanced around the bar. Up on the wall behind the bar hung little bags full of materia. Once, as a child he played with materia. Materia, once connected to a weapon of some sort can give you powers, as in ice, fire, lighting, and many others. His mother often disciplined him because materia contains a small amount of mako, which can kill you. Vincent looked curiously and coughed, making sure his voice had returned, if maybe just a little. It had, but talking made it burn extremely.

"Excuse me sir," he said slowly, his voice low. "Is that materia?"

"It sure us, son…"he said anticipating another purchase. "Would you like to buy some?"

"Yes please." Said Vincent, using his manners, which came naturally to him.

"Which one, I got fire, ice water, lighting and earth."

"I'll take water, fire and ice." Replied Vincent as he took out 1000 gil from his pocket.

Again, the bartender greedily took it and gave Vincent back 9 gil, and placed the glowing red, blue and sliver-blue stones on the counter. Vincent stuffed the gil into his pocket and attached the materia to his weapon.

"Thank you." Vincent said, standing up and walking out of the bar, back to the inn, and going to sleep.

~*~

H 

e awoke the next morning in his bed. At first he was frightened. The first morning of freedom, he was so used to waking to the smell of mold and death and waking up in a fresh clean bed startled him.

"Uhhh," excaped his throught as he sat up, holding his head. "Oww, my head hurts."

He climbed out of the bed, grasped his Quicksilver gun, straightened his hair and left. He noisily walked down the stairs and threw the key on the checkout desk.

"Now, where did they go?" he asked himself aloud as he scanned the town for the first time in a while during daylight hours. But then he saw them,


End file.
